And that’s a real shame.​Your salon or spa surely uses great products. Your clients could benefit from using those products at home. Plus, your bottom line will look better month after and month.

The main issue is that you just don’t know how to sell them, nor does your team. Honestly, there is nothing wrong with that—unless you don’t do anything about it.

​To help you out, we’ve come up with 6 simple yet highly effective tips to help you increase your retail sales.​

1 - Choose Great Brands

When you put a brand on your shelves, it serves as an endorsement.

Make sure that you choose products that you can put your name behind. That way, when your customers ask about them, you can recommend them wholeheartedly.

Top notch companies also offer better opportunities to help you build up a stream of income with them. Many global brands offer professional marketing materials and retail guidance.

Plus, there is always the name recognition factor. If your client already loves a brand you carry, you’re more likely to make the sale and more likely to have another fan for your own brand.

​Think carefully before you select products based solely on price, or even your own personal preference. Choose based on what is best for business.

2 - Guest Education

One way or another, you have to prove to your clients that the products you carry are the best.

For the vast majority of them, simply seeing your display won’t be enough. You have to educate them about what they should look for in such products. Also, be sure to let them know that your products are part of the reason they feel so good after every appointment.

It starts with employee education. Get your employees to name your products as they use them. You can even reward staff for pushing merchandise sales. There are so many places where you can slip in a mention of your products to your clients.

Many small and medium sized operations would also do well to educate their clients about their business model. If your service creates raving fans, many of them will actually want to support your business.

3 - Samples

Samples are one of the all-time most tried and true methods to increase product awareness.

Especially if you are retailing high quality products, putting them in your customer's hands will always yield good effects. There are a variety of ways to get it done. Some of the top retail brands facilitate this with sample packs.

You can also utilize samples in your other promotions. Product samples are great for giveaways, rewards, or as bonuses with an appointment.

4 - Sales Driving Promotions

On the other side of the coin, there are a variety of promotions you can execute in order to drive sales for your products themselves.

Whether your spa is new, you’re just beginning to push your merchandise, or you have a new line of products, it is absolutely vital that you let your customers know about the products you carry.

Don’t be scared to take a loss on giveaways and discounts at first. But once you establish a baseline of monthly retail customers, growing that revenue is much easier.

When brand awareness is already high, discounts are even more effective. A lower price on your merchandise can also help to push membership enrollment higher. You can also leverage the networks of your clientele by offering referral bonuses.

The more you establish yourselves as experts in the industry, the more reliable a source you will seem. This will in turn augment the effectiveness of all of your promotions.

5 - Online Promotion

One of the most important things for any salon, spa, or tanning salon to do is to get online, and do so in a big way.

​Social media is probably the simplest and most direct way for businesses in this industry to reach their target audience directly. Facebook, Yelp!, and others are absolutely vital for salons and spas in this Information Age.

Once you connect on these platforms, there are a variety of ways to engage with your followers in a way that will drive retail sales.

Similarly, email marketing is another great way to keep both your brand and the brands you carry in the minds of your clients. “Email blasts” and other types of promotional emails are a great way to build this income stream over time.

Any business that fails to keep up with modern marketing trends is destined to lose out to competition that attacks these verticals more aggressively.

6 - Visuals

Still, there is nothing wrong with trusting the “old school” methods a little bit.

In fact, we highly recommend that you make proper use of the real estate within your establishment to draw the attention of your clients to the products you have to offer.

Make the brands you use as visual as possible. You want to create as many opportunities as possible for your customers to ask about them and your staff to talk about them.

And honestly, if your customers don’t notice your products in your store all of your promotions are more likely to fall flat on their face. They have to see you advocating them.

Go with a nice mix of attention-grabbing and classy. You certainly don’t want to seem too desperate for sales but don’t be bashful about what you have to offer. Remember, if you’ve chosen a solid brand or two to partner with, they’ll have marketing materials for you.​

The main thing you need when trying to push retail sales is an open mind.

Don’t expect the first thing you try to make all of the difference. Afterall, nothing is a better teacher than experience. And if you take a scientific approach to running your campaigns, you’ll maximize your chances of finding a combination that gets the results you’re looking for.​Certainly, start with these 6 tips as a foundation, but don’t stop there. A nice stream of complementary income is in your reach. You just have to find it!